Are English Managers Losing out to Style Over Substance?

The recent resurgence in Chairman incapabilities has come as a slight surprise to the media in the past few weeks. The season was looking uncharacteristic by Premier League standards. Grant was allocated time to make his point, McCarthy went along lambasting his luck week in, week out without any response from a concerned boardroom. Even Hodgson looked as though he was going to make it to Christmas before the bookies where cashing in on his misfortune.

Then it hit us, like a delayed reaction, we saw the first two managerial casualties of the season. But not what was expected, rather than the usual bandwagon of clubs playing ‘manager swapsies’, we saw a backlash of players, pundits and fans a like, dismayed and appalled at the treatment of two of England’s up and coming managers.

The surprise caught everyone, if it had been a Grant, or a Hodgson then we could be swayed to an extent that the club in question felt the need to cut their losses and begin fresh-faced for the New Years to try to salvage league survival. What we saw instead was the redundancies of Chris Hughton, perhaps the only man to steady a Newcastle side, and Sam Allardyce, a man who had a very poor blackburn side in a very respectable position.

These men were sacked because they didnt fit the image or vision their respective Chairman’s held for the club. Mike Ashley, no stranger to controversy, obviously feels that in an entertainment industry as quick paced as football, there is no such thing as a stabilizing season, and felt the need to bring in a bigger manager who could push the team up the league in half the time. Yes im talking about Pardew. This was obviously met with strong opposition. Newcastle fans have a right to feel aggrieved that the man who had brought momentary joy and perhaps more importantly, stabilisation, to the club, was thrown out the door because they have a chairman who puts business before the club’s stability and felt Hughton didn’t fit that business plan.

This pattern followed suit soon after, in Blackburn. Yesterday, news came through that Sam Allardyce had been relieved of his duties at the club. This has come as a result of recent new owners, an Indian consortium, the Venky Group’s ambition to take Blackburn to the next level. This obviously meant that a manager who brought Bolton to the level they are today, and has managed to keep Blackburn afloat, whilst keeping a profit in transfer history since joining the club, simply wasnt good enough.

“We do not mean anything bad for Sam Allardyce but we feel that we need to take the club up in the league and grow..We want Blackburn to be fourth or fifth in the league or even better.” – Anuradha Desai

Football fans will be looking at this with sweaty palms as Blackburn seem on the verge of falling into an abyss of rolling managers, uncontrollable transfers and hiked season ticket prices, as the Vecky Group try to turn the small town club into the next big Premier League logo. Managers beware, blindly ambitious chairmen afoot.

Agree with all of it. What’s worse is that this “style” is a media dictated image. Owen Coyle for example, is still playing Kevin Davies, they are still dirty and direct. Yet the media would have you believe he’s Pep Guardiola. Big Sam took Bolton into europe, I doubt Coyle will do the same.

Perhaps a little harsh on Coyle, I think it took a lot for Coyle to get Bolton up and running again. It probably compliments both managers that Coyle is getting so much credit for simply maintaining what Allardyce built.
Agree about the Media definition of style aswell. Bolton have certainly been one of the more exctiting sides this season.

I think Coyle is an excellent manager and Davies and underated player. Plays physical often but has better touch than is given credit for. Look at some of the goals Bolton have scored this year to see that Coyle has added a measure of style to their play. I’m not sure English mangers have lost out at Newcastle either given that Alan Pardew has been brought in. Not sure he is going to add much entertainment. I see what you are getting at though and you are probably right as a long term trend.

Yeh thats true about Pardew. To be honest I only felt compelled to write the article after the Allardyce news and then write soley about the situation at Blackburn until I decided Hughton’s redudancy was some what similar.